Twelve Years of Correspondence With Paul Meehl: Tough Notes From a Gentle Genius

213 Pages·11.011 MB·English

Twelve Years of Correspondence
With Paul Meehl
Tough Notes From a Gentle Genius

Twelve Years of Correspondence
With Paul Meehl
Tough Notes From a Gentle Genius
Donald R. Peterson
Copyright © 2005 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any
other means, without prior written permission of the
publisher.
First published by
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430
This edition published 2012 by Psychology Press
Psychology Press Psychology Press
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
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New York, NY 10017 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Psychology Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa group company
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peterson, Donald R. (Donald Robert) 1923-
[Correspondence. Selections]
Twelve years of correspondence with Paul Meehl : tough notes
from a gentle genius / Donald R. Peterson,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-5489-4 (cloth : alk. Paper)
1. Peterson, Donald R. (Donald Robert), 1923 -Correspon
dence. 2. Meehl, Paul E. (Paul Everett), 1920 -Correspondence.
3. Psychologists—United States—Correspondence. I. Title.
BF109.P48A4 2005
150'.92'273—dc22 2005040048
CIP
To Paul E. Meehl, who taught thousands of students how
to think and blessed the lives of those who knew him well
The Master in the Art of Living makes little distinction
between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his
mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love
and his intellectual passion. He hardly knows which is
which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in
whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is
working or playing.
Adapted from an ancient Zen Buddhist text

Contents
Introduction ix
1 Meekl 1
2 Hermeneutics 6
3 Kudos and Confusions 14
4 Prizewinners, Perils, and Parapraxes 21
5 Morality 27
6 Peterson's Sermon 36
7 Meehl's Response to Campbell 45
8 Selling an Unpopular Book 55
vii
viii CONTENTS
9 Discovery and Justification 65
10 Constructionism, Realism, and Intellectual Honesty 72
11 Reconciling Differences 81
12 Social Experience and Social Conscience 97
13 Meehl's Constructionism 107
14 Politics and Politicians, Psychotherapy 119
and Psychotherapists, Paleontology
and Paleontologists
15 Factor Analysis 133
16 History and Historians 141
17 The Scientific Mentality 149
18 Meehl's Scientism 155
19 Farewell 163
Notes 172
Author Index 185
Subject Index 191
Introduction
p
aul Everett Meehl died on Saint Valentine's day, 2003. Five
days later, his obituary appeared in the New York Times.
Dr. Paul Meehl, a University of Minnesota psychologist whose
writings on research methodology, mental illness and other topics
influenced generations of researchers and psychotherapists, died
on Friday at his home in Minneapolis. He was 83.
The cause was chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, his colleagues said.
The names of other American psychologists—B. F. Skinner, for
example—might be more familiar to the public. But many experts
say Dr. Meehl's influence within his field was equally profound.
His writings are widely cited and prescribed reading for every
graduate student. His insistence on precise thinking and scientific
tough-mindedness made him a scourge to some and a role model
to many others.
In the early 1960's, when a vast majority of psychiatrists and
psychologists believed that schizophrenia was caused by bad
parenting, Dr. Meehl argued that the illness must have a strong
genetic component, and discussed the subject in his 1962
presidential address to the American Psychological Association. Forty
years later, the genetic basis of schizophrenia is widely accepted.
ix